Schemes to improve health facilities

ANNOUNCING A slew of schemes worth a few hundred crores to take health facilities to the last person, Health and Medical Education Minister Ajay Vishnoi on Thursday said there would be no paucity of funds for any health schemes.

ANNOUNCING A slew of schemes worth a few hundred crores to take health facilities to the last person, Health and Medical Education Minister Ajay Vishnoi on Thursday said there would be no paucity of funds for any health schemes.

Starting from the basic health unit of a health sub-centre to District Hospitals, Vishnoi announced various measures including appointment of additional staff, creation of new infrastructure, provision for ambulance and other facilities and storage of important medicines at the PHC level itself and hoped that the health scenario would improve as the state has been giving lot of importance to health.

Ten district hospitals in the state would be identified to provide hi-tech equipment and selection would be made on the basis of number of beds and accessibility so as to make the facility available for large number of people, the Health Minister said during a ‘Meet the Press’ programme at Indore Press Club here on Thursday.

On the issue of shortage of staff at the Medical Colleges, Vishnoi said the government is contemplating direct appointments to the post of professors. “Also, the process of regularising assistant professors on contract is going on.”

He also clarified that neither the Centre nor the state government has received any letter from the Medical Council of India regarding ‘derecognition’ of government medical colleges in the state.

When the Minister’s attention was drawn to Family Planning issue, he said is it a misconception being spread that Muslims are against family planning. Showing a book by senior journalist Muzaffar Hussain ‘Family Planning’, 10,000 copies of which have been bought by state government to be distributed across the state, Vishnoi said, “The senior columnist, with the help of verses from the Quran, ‘fatwas’ by Maulavis and rules/appeals made by governments of different Muslim countries has showed how Islam is not against family planning.”

The state government is keen on integrating AYUSH (Ayurved, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) with mainstream allopathy, he said adding, Rs 35 lakh each has been sanctioned to attach AYUSH wing to 18 District Hospitals across the state and posts of 200 doctors and 200 pharmacists have been sanctioned under AYUSH.

He also announced Rs 2 crore for Ayurvedic and Unani Colleges. The Minister, who visited the City after a year, however, gave bland answers to most of the question, making it evident the near callous attitude and plain disinterest.

To a question why a senior official of the MGM Medical College and M Y Hospital was using a car purchased from the funds sanctioned for an ambulance for the hospital, he said the matter should have been raised before the Dean. When informed it was the Dean who was using the car, without a flicker of expression on his face, Vishnoi said, “I was not aware of this. Now that you have informed me, let me decide what action to take.”